Door



2 Sheets-Sheet l Oct. 29, 1935. B. F. FITCH DOOR Filed Dec. 28, 1952S14/vento@ O 0x0 Q Oct. 29, 1935. B. F. FITCH 2,018Q663 DOOR Filed Dec.28, 1932 2 sheets-sheet 2 30 o @//foZoZ :I

Patented Oct. 29, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT ortica DOOR ApplicationDecember 28, 1932, Serial No. 649,193

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a door suitable for a container for packagefreight and particularly 'for a demountable automobile body adapted tocontain such freight and be transferred with-its l load between a truckand a railway flat car. Such doorsare conveniently hinged to the side orend walls of the body by lift-off hinges, and the door should be lightenough so that it may be readily lifted off manually when desired, andat l the same time should be strong enough to resist anyA impact fromthe contained freight, and Should be of such construction as not to beliable to distortion during the handling of the body or to warping fromthe weather, as it is necessary l forit to make a tight connection withthe door frame.

The object of my invention is to provide a door having thecharacteristics mentioned, which shall be cheap in manufacture andeicient and durav ble in service.

To the above end, I form my door of an inner andan outer layer of verylight material surfaced on the exterior by sheet metal and I providesheet metal across the edges of the door to protect the interior layers.I bend the metal of one or both outer sheets at right angles and thenbackwardly parallel with the outer sheet so as to embrace the edgeportion of the interior. To give the desired thickness to the door andstiifen it, the

two metal-surfaced layers are preferably spaced apart by filling piecesbetween them at least at the margins where all of the layers areeffectively bound together.

The package freight within the container may 3:5 impact against theinner face of the door during transit, and to prevent any distortionfrom this or any other cause, I prefer to provide suitable fillers inthe intermediate region between the two layers, which effectively bracethem throughout their area.

The above-mentioned features are hereinafter more fully described inconnection with the illustrations in the drawings.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a railway flat car onwhich are mounted two demountable automobile bodies, each having mydoors; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of one of the doors in place, showingparts oi an adjacent door and the door frame; Fig. 3 is a verticalsection on the line 3 3 oi.' Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a crosssection on alarger scale through the door adjacent one edge, as, for instance, inthe plane indicated by the line 4--4 in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a sideelevation similar to Fig. 2 but indicating a modi- 'fied form of door;Fig. 6 is a vertical section on the line 6-6 on Fig. 5.

In Fig. 1, A indicates a railway flat car, and B two demountable bodiesmounted thereon. Each body has a oor frame b, side and end 5 walls b,b2, and a roof b3. Formed in one or both side walls and in one or bothend walls, if desired,.are door frames which, in cross section, may bein the form of Z-bars, as indicated at b5, in Figs. 3 and 6. The lowerZ-bars b5 1.0 may protect the floor be of the demountable body, ifdesired.

My doors, which are indicated in pairs C in Figs. 1, 2, and 5, arehinged to the door frame by lift-off hinges, indicated at D. Thesehinges 15 comprise brackets d secured to the door frame and havingupstanding pins, and straps d secured to the door and having eyesembracing the pins. Such lift-off hinges enable the doors to be entirelyremoved from the body by the 20 manual act of lifting them when they areturned out operably free from the door jamb.

I will now describe the construction of the door itself, as illustratedin Figs. 2, 3, and 4. This door has two opposed panels, each made up35.* of two layers l0 and Il of wood, or of laminated wooden or fibroussheets, or of pressed fibrous material having on the outer side metalsheets l2 and I3 adhering to the wooden or fibrous sheets. Such materialis on the market under 3 various names, as for instance, Plymetl.

In making up my door, in its preferred form, from such material, thewooden or fibrous portions are omitted orremoved around the margins ofthe metal sheets. Such sheets are then cut 35 out at the corners and thefour projecting regions are then bent across the edges of the fibrouslayer, as shown at I5 in Fig. 4, and then bent up onto the inside ofsuch fibrous layer, as appears at I6 in that gure. Such operationproduces the two 0 panels, where the entire edge of the layer lll or Ilis protected.

At the margin of the door, I place, between the inturned metal surfaces,suitable filler strips 20, which are preferably of hard wood and lieadja- 5 cent the edge portions of the composite layers, and are flushwith the edges. The top and bottom ller strips may be mitered with thevertical strips, if desired, or may abut them, or may be cut half andhalf to overlap in the form of a 50 half mortise joint.

About the edges of the door are metal reinforcing trough-shaped members30,'which extend across the edges of the two composite members and thefiller strip and snugly engage the two Il wooden interior, as Well as toprevent the shanks of such long rivets from bending when the heads( areupset, I prefer to provide within the members lli, H and the ller strip3D, bushings 4l, which surround the rivet shanks, These bushings mighthave their outer ends abutting the inner faces of the sheets l2 and i3,but itis simpler to make holes of the external diameter of the bushing'through all of Ythe assembled layers and drive the bushings into placefrom the outside. I'he structure is then ready to receive the rivets,Vwhose heads are upset in the usual manner.

It will be seen that such a door as described may be very light for thearea covered and that the entire exterior is of sheet metal with all ofthe edges amply protected, first, by the inturned prtion of the sheetmetal face I2 and I3, and then by the reinforcing binding member 3l).These binding members are eectively riveted in place, and by making aclose miter joint at the corners of the door, give the structurerigidity against sagging or distortion in its own plane.

To prevent any distortion of the panels of the door in an intermediateregion due to the impact of freight within the container, as well as toprevent warping, which might interfere with a tight seating of the door,I provide suitable bracing means within the door between the layers IBand l i. This bracing means may comprise a sheet of balsa wood 50 (Figs.3 and 4) which lls the entire space and at its edges engages the inneredges of the filler strips Z. This sheet of balsa wood, while Verylight, has considerable resistanceV to compression and thus preventsdamage to the door from the impact of freight pressing against it on theinside.

In place of the balsa wood filler 5B, I may employ the construction ofFigs. 5 and 6, where I have placed within the door, near the center, acrosssti'ip t@ of hard wood and above and below this diagonal strips 6Iand 52, each of these diagonal strips being cut half way through whereit crosses the other strip to make a half mortise joint. Thisconstruction reduces the unbraced area of the door panel to such a smallarea that there is little danger of distortion from internal impact.

It will be seen that whichever form of internal bracing is employed, Ihave produced a door with a complete metal facing but with the interiorof light material, which is arranged to effectively hold the sheet metalfacing in its planular position. The doors may be cheaply constructed:they are sufliciently light so that they may be readily lifted off thehinges if desired, even though they are of considerable size, and they 5effectively retain their shape, so that they may maintain a snug seatingwithin the door jambs.

I claim:

l. A door comprising two composite panels spaced apart, fibrous materialcompletely filling 10 the space between said panels, each panel havingan inner fibrous layer and an outer layer of metal, the metal layerextending at the margins beyond the fibrous layer and being bent acrossthe edges of the fibrous layer and then inwardly along the inner sidesthereof, marginal ller strips between the two inturned metal layers, andrivets passing through the panels and the inturned metal layers thereofand through the intermediate ller strips.

2. In a door, the combination of two composite vpanels spaced apart,diagonal bracing members between said panels, each panel comprising aninner fibrous layer and an outer metal layer, the metal layer extendingat the margins beyond the fibrous layer and being bent across the edgesof the fibrous layer and then inwardly along: the. inner sides thereof,a marginal iiller between the two panels lying between the twointurnedportions of the two metal layers, and a trough-shaped bindingmember extending across the edges of the two panels and such filler andoverlapping the outer sides of the two metal layers.

3. A door comprising two composite panels spaced apart, each consistingof an inner fibrous layer of substantially the area of the door and a.larger outer metal layer bent at all of the margins across the edgesl ofthe brous layers and along the inner side of such layers, filler stripsat the margin between the two inturned portions of the metal layers, ametal boundary member protecting the edge face of the ller strips, andmeans for securing the two panels and the filler strips and the boundarymember together.

4. A door comprising two composite panels 4 spaced apart, each panelhaving an innergfibrous Yiianges, the two panels and the iiller strips,and bushings within the interior of the door surrounding the shank ofthe rivets. y

BENJAMIN F. FITCH.

